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Windows could not finish configuring the system error after sysprep /generalize

Question

I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate RTM off from technet and as always I do make use of WIM images on having them deployed to my home PC's

I was able to have it installed on a clean machine and once the wizard appeared i immediately entered Audit mode (shift+ctrl+f3) and the usual I loaded all of the software i need to pre-install after I was done I Immediately loaded sysprep and had it with the generalized option

now this is where the problem begins....... after it restarts during the "Setup is starting Services" screen it gives me a message box error saying "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt resume configuration, restart the computer" and once I press ok it jsut restarts and gives the same error again.

This does not happen when i dont select the generalize option in sysprep.

Réponses

I now have the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. This solution will actually tell you exactly what registry key is causing your sysprep to fail, so then you don't have to slowly install
every program until you find the problem -- especially since this didn't work for me because my problem has been intermittent.

This issue is caused by certain registry keys that are either:

a) Larger than 8kb

b) Set with incorrect permissions

c) Corrupt in some way

For me, the problem was intermittent (same registry key would sometimes cause the issue and sometimes not - must be corrupt sometimes) so it was impossible to tell what program was doing it. Luckily, there is a log you can look at that will tell you
exactly what registry key is erroring out. Here are the steps for getting the log you need to see:

When you see the error message, do the following:

1.) Push Shift+F10 to get to a command prompt

2.) Navigate to C:\windows\Panther

3.) Find the Setup.etl file and find a way to copy this file off of the system (I copied it to the D:\ partition and used Ghost to gather that partition and get the file off)

4.) Copy the setup.etl file from the corrupted system to another computer that has Windows 7. Put it on the root of C:\ for easiest access.

5.) Open a Command Prompt on the Windows 7 computer.

6.) Navigate to the root of C:\ (or wherever you saved the file)

7.) Type "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv"

8.) Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor of choice.

9.) Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say "Failed to process reg key or one of it's decendants" For me, the exact eror looked like this: "Failed to process reg key or one of its descendants: [\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET
Security\CurrentVersion\Plugins\01000200\Profiles\@My profile]" If you search for "reg key" or "failed to process" you should find the failure.

10.) Remove this software from your image, or find out how to get the registry key that is failing to work properly.

After this, you should be able to properly identify any problem keys and remove/workaround them on your image.

Toutes les réponses

I can confirm the same issue as "Charles Yap II" with the Windows 7 Enterprise RTM. I have used sysprep with OOBE and generalize option and even on the same machine where sysprep has been run on, restarting it results in the same specific message. Thus I must conclude it may not be related to changes in BIOS, nor hardware configuration, nor partition scheme as everything obviously remained the same on that computer. Very much looking forward to a solution from Microsoft because this will greatly delay planned deployment.

On my test system, I ran sysprep with the oobe option but without using the generalize option. Upon restart the mini setup starts without the error (as I expected). This is further indication that something goes wrong during the preparation with the generalize option, possibly related to the license activation process with the "Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SPP component " as I've been able to gather from other references. Of course this does not allow me to deploy systems because a.o. the SID will not have been changed and several other undesirable settings are still in effect. This test was performed for troubleshooting purposes only.

I lost two days trying to make this work. Sysprep /generalize /oobe throws me the same error: "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt resume configuration, restart the computer" Something interferes with the generalize process. Logs seem not to help anyone.

Someone said to stop ALL Microsoft services listed by running msconfig. This is the next thing I'll try. It's 4:32 am, bed time. Aaaaggghhhh

"It seems that killing the “wmpnetwk.exe” before sysprepping lets the sysprep process run smoothly.:)"

Yes, but wmpnetwk.exe is not running on Enterprise by default. All Media Player services in Windows 7 Enterprise are set to "Manual", and in the processes list, thye never show up.

I have a FULLY configurated Windows 7 Enterprise installation, which gives me the same error as in the first post: "...could not finish configuring..." during boot.

However, I have created a new installation, simply based on a clean Windows 7 Enterprise installatation with NO changes en NO updates nothing, and this one works with sysprep! During boot it says "Starting services" and then the GUI appears. Everything works fine.

Please keep in mind that we are testing on ONE system, same hardware. We use /shutdown, so the system shuts down, and then we simply turn it on again. :)

Conslusion: is seems that somewhere along the way installing our system, the sysprep method doesn't work anymore. This could be Updates, installed software, installed services etc.I'm currently removing all the software components and services, just until the sysprep works. -> this is what keeps me going, because with a clean installation, sysprep works!

I have the same problem here, but only with x86. The x64 edition with exactly the same applications and other configuration is not experiencing this problem. Since I assume, that we are not installing all the same applications on the systems, it is propably a problem with a Windows Update in the x86 version. I will try this in the next days.

I am having the same issues. I have tried all the known "solutions" - disable media player sharing (even though it is manual in enterprise version), I ran through the error logs in %windir%\panther\setupact.log and %windir%\panther\UnattendGC\setupact.log without any luck. I also removed Symantec antivirus from the deafault image as I read that this may be the cause, but still the same error. I even tried using my unattend.xml from my Vista image which worked fine on Vista, made a new catalog for RTM 7 and a few minor changes, but same errorIf anyone has any ideas, then I am game to trying - its driving me nuts. Why did they have to take away the simple and always working setupmgr from XP days :(

I resolved the issue - it was actually so simple I could kick myself. I simply removed the machine from the domain before running the sysprep with unattend.xml. I now have a good functional working image.

Has anyone managed to get this working yet? I'm on the RTM build of Windows 7 Enterprise. Have tried uninstalling Sophos Anti-virus from the build but to no avail, still get the "Windows could not finsih configuring the system" loop.

Frustrating because for once I actually want to deploy a new Windows operating system!

We have the same issue. The only problem is that we do not have a backup of the machine in a state before we run sysprep. Is there a way to get the system working again? We had Kaspersky for Windows Workstation 6.0.4 installed - which may cause the trouble...

This is really urgent at the moment because we wanted to deploy one of the new PCs today and tweaked every detail on that system, untill we had it ready to be cloned. And now this :( If we cannot get that machine working again we will have to re-build everything.

I am having the same issues as the OP and for the life of me can't figure out what to do. I want to have a fully configured system including my antivirus and daemon tools. I suspect those programs are causing the issue. Any more ideas?

I now have the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. This solution will actually tell you exactly what registry key is causing your sysprep to fail, so then you don't have to slowly install
every program until you find the problem -- especially since this didn't work for me because my problem has been intermittent.

This issue is caused by certain registry keys that are either:

a) Larger than 8kb

b) Set with incorrect permissions

c) Corrupt in some way

For me, the problem was intermittent (same registry key would sometimes cause the issue and sometimes not - must be corrupt sometimes) so it was impossible to tell what program was doing it. Luckily, there is a log you can look at that will tell you
exactly what registry key is erroring out. Here are the steps for getting the log you need to see:

When you see the error message, do the following:

1.) Push Shift+F10 to get to a command prompt

2.) Navigate to C:\windows\Panther

3.) Find the Setup.etl file and find a way to copy this file off of the system (I copied it to the D:\ partition and used Ghost to gather that partition and get the file off)

4.) Copy the setup.etl file from the corrupted system to another computer that has Windows 7. Put it on the root of C:\ for easiest access.

5.) Open a Command Prompt on the Windows 7 computer.

6.) Navigate to the root of C:\ (or wherever you saved the file)

7.) Type "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv"

8.) Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor of choice.

9.) Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say "Failed to process reg key or one of it's decendants" For me, the exact eror looked like this: "Failed to process reg key or one of its descendants: [\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET
Security\CurrentVersion\Plugins\01000200\Profiles\@My profile]" If you search for "reg key" or "failed to process" you should find the failure.

10.) Remove this software from your image, or find out how to get the registry key that is failing to work properly.

After this, you should be able to properly identify any problem keys and remove/workaround them on your image.

Wow. I just followed Jeff's advice and what I found was that I had a value in the registry referring to IE that couldn't be read.

That led me to review what profiles were set up on the laptop - I had set up the image using an admin account I created other than administrator. What I did to fix the issue was this:

I went in to user profiles and deleted all profiles except administrator and default. Then, I followed through and verified that the profile folders were deleted from the operating system, emptied the recycle bin. Finally, I went into user manager in control
panel and made sure those accounts were not listed there - to my surprise, one of them still was.

After that, I ran through ccleaner on the computer to clean up the registry and whack any temp internet files.

I'm sure the - very well described - process you propose works 95% of the time. Or maybe 99%. But not 100% : it didn't work for me. Same error message ("Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt resume configuration, restart the computer"
just after the "Windows is starting services" boot screen) after rebooting the (virtualboxed) Windows 7 Home Premium x64 i just set up and sysprep-ed.

In the case i'm stuck with, the method you propose gives a file with no error at all. Strangely enough, the setup.etl timestamp is coherent with the reboot, though the logfile.xml obtained with tracerpt shows no entry with the date of today (in fact, all
entries have the date of the day i installed Win 7 right from the DVD).

No antivirus installed, no Daemon Tools. In fact, i have quite the same setup (except for some software versions) on a Win 7 Professional x64 whose generalized image works well. So i really don't see a software that could cause the problem.

A log file (%windir%\Panther\UnattendGC_setupact.log) shows a 0x8007139f error code, but this led me nowhere (Kaspersky AV or Daemon Tools, not installed). So far, i tried to reboot in safe mode, disabling the drivers signing : no go.

Seems like i'll have to explore the "uninstall this and that and look if it works". Lots of fun to come, eh ?!

I have used several imaging tools to backup and restore in the past and they always allowed me to restore on top of existing data on the target partition, or should I say that an automated format was completed by the application prior to deploying image.
Imagex simply does not do an automated format and will not deploy well to volumes that already hold data. Instead I used winpe to boot and then using the diskpart format tool to quick format the target volume, once the volume was formatted all images tested
so far have deployed more or less perfectly. More importantly I have never seen the deployment annoyingly fail on starting services since!!

I had the exact same problem Jeff Harrison had (the ESET reg key failed to process). As I had ESET NOD32 installed, with no way of deleting the problematic reg key, I thought the only way to fix it was to uninstall it and reinstall manually after imaging
every PC.
Note that both Windows hotfixes didn't work.

I tried one more thing before I gave up though - booting to safe mode. It worked! Boot into safe mode after sysprep, it will tell you setup cannot continue in safe mode. Reboot again and this time and it should be all fixed. All in all booting to safe mode
once is much easier and quicker than manually installing NOD32 every time I image a PC.

tldr:
Had the same problem Jeff Harrison did, but the safe mode trick worked for me.

Worked just great. after figureing out the registry path - On the affected machine pushed Shift+F10 and I used cmd /C reg delete "path to the key" /f' - the machine restarted the affected machine and it was all good. Thanks Jeff

Thanks Jeff! You just saved me a gang of frustration. I simply copied the setup.etl file from C:\Windows\panther to C:\ and then ran "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.txt" instead of .csv as Excel would not open the .csv file for whatever reason.
I then used jrhus's suggestion and ran the command 'cmd /C reg delete "path to the key" /f' to delete the key, which was the printer providers key and rebooted I was good!

I've spent most of the day reading your posts. None of these items resolved the issue for my scenario. Are there any other suggestions? I am new to deployment
services and would really like to take full advantage of the product.

My Windows 7 machine boots fine, runs the sysprep, reboots then fails. I've looked at the setup.etl file on both instances, and there are no registry errors.

How can I go from a functional install, to a debilitating error on a reboot?

The only helpful information I could gather was after the first reboot, in Applicaton Event Viewer, it showed that sysprep failed rearm remaining error code 0xc004d307, for
the app ID which looked like Windows Update. wucltux.dll.

I tried all kinds of things to fix this error message in my sysprepped Win7 x64 professional image.

I applied the hotfix, disabled wmpnetwk.exe, tried jeff's method to see which registry key was giving errors (there were 2 keys that failed to process, but they didn't contain any link to software that I had installed.)

None of them worked for me.

What did work though, and I find it kinda strange, was pressing F8 and booting into safe-mode, which then would produce an error that safe mode wasn't available.

But the next normal boot after doing that I didn't get the 'Windows could not finish configuring the system'-error and my setup continued and completed normally...

I'm stuck with the same error message. Is there a way to get to a command prompt so that I can try to run some of the commands at bootup to take my system out of sysprep mode?

Mine happened after running sysprep.exe then selecting Eneter Audit Mode, selected "Generalize" and selecting "Reboot" as the action option. Sorry, going from memory so my descriptions may not be exactly as appeared on the screen. How can I undo this
audit mode? I had made a USB Flash bootable drive to boot into Windows Pre Installation Environment, and I also have the Windows 7 DVD. I did try to repair my installation however this causes the system to reboot then it goes back to the same loop as described
in the original post.

Thanks for this: the MS hotfix for the larger than 8k reg key issue was just what I needed. I’ve been looking about for a troubleshooting method to trace the error, and what you have provided was spot on. Thanks a million. BTW, I had a reg key in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData
causing the issue. Didn’t trace it to the exact program, but I’m sysprepping madly now! Presumably the hotfix is rolled into SP1 released today? Can anyone confirm? Pete

Hi, I'm having this issue with an SP1 integrated iso off the ms licensing page. Its absolutely killing me at the moment and i'm losing faith in WDS/sysprep/ms in general, very fast. I have spent three days struggling with this. None of the fixes suggested
above have worked, I cant find anything interesting in any of the logs.

- Created an install image from the new SP1 iso (Win7 Pro SP1)
- Installed Windows on a PC through WDS (no unattend just a straight install)
- Install went fine I press ctrl+shift+F3 to enter audit mode
- Reboot without doing anything
= fail - Windows could not complete the installation error message.
Sometimes I can get it to work but the slightest change (removing windows dvd maker for instance) breaks it.

Its also joining the clients to the domain when I specifically tell it not to through wds.
Not sure if thats causing my problem, but it shouldnt be joining the domain when I have it checked not to do so.

I first tried to install that hotfix, but it says my system didn't need it. I started with a Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 source so it was probably already included.

Then I tried to delete the registry keys (out of a mix of frustration/desperation) from my pre-sysprep image to see if maybe ESET would rebuild them when sysprep was done..., but I was given a message saying that there was an error, then it hit me... SELF-DEFENSE!

ESET blocks changes to its registry keys just in case malware tries to disable it by deleting its keys. This disallows sysprep access from these keys during the first-time bootup after you have restored an image on a new machine.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS: Disable Self-Defense in ESET by enabling Advanced Mode, going into Setup -> Advanced Setup, uncheck the Self-Defense box, restart the computer, and then do your sysprep/generalizing/oobe.

This works for ESET, but there must be some sort of defense mechanism that other AVs employ for their registry keys. Disable them prior to sysprepping and you can enable them afterwards.

I'm now looking at a restored, syspreped image that went all the way to the desktop without issue after employing this fix.

Addendum: You may leave the Self-Defense on in all other accounts (even if you have a User account that you copy to Default) except for the Administrator account that you use when u do the sysprep process. That way, when you restore and create the user
account in OOBE, Self-Defense is already active there and all other subsequent created user accounts.

Been reading this thread to try and fix my issue. It seems close to what you are experiencing so maybe this will help someone.

When I sysprep Windows 7 Pro SP1 after installing all programs and drivers to get my Gold image, I sysprep with an unattended XML and the /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattendfile.xml

The sysprep process starts and it gets to a place where the screen goes black and the monitor goes to sleep but the system stays running forever. (Or at least 72 hours as I left it in this state over a weekend) If I power down the system and
bring up the system is not usable. I cannot login, no minisetup, admin account is locked.

I then reimaged with our non SP1 image and updated SP1 instead of using the image with SP1 built into the install and it syspreped fine. I then installed the Intel Graphics driver HD (lastest version from Intel) and then tired a sysprep and it failed.

So in my case using generalize with the Latest version of the Intel Graphics HD driver loaded causes an issue. I also tired a two other recent issues with same result. I think if I use generalize with PersistentAllDeviceInstallsit will work.

Persisting Plug and Play Device Drivers during generalize

You can persist device drivers when you run the sysprep /generalize command by specifying the PersistentAllDeviceInstalls setting in the Microsoft-Windows-PnPSysprep component. During the specialize pass, Plug and Play scans the computer for
devices and installs device drivers for the detected devices. By default, these device drivers are removed from the system when you generalize the system. If you set PersistAllDeviceInstalls to True in an answer file, Sysprep will not remove
the detected device drivers. For more information, see the Unattended Windows Setup Reference

I now have the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. This solution will actually tell you exactly what registry key is causing your sysprep to fail, so then you don't have to slowly install
every program until you find the problem -- especially since this didn't work for me because my problem has been intermittent.

This issue is caused by certain registry keys that are either:

a) Larger than 8kb

b) Set with incorrect permissions

c) Corrupt in some way

For me, the problem was intermittent (same registry key would sometimes cause the issue and sometimes not - must be corrupt sometimes) so it was impossible to tell what program was doing it. Luckily, there is a log you can look at that will tell you
exactly what registry key is erroring out. Here are the steps for getting the log you need to see:

When you see the error message, do the following:

1.) Push Shift+F10 to get to a command prompt

2.) Navigate to C:\windows\Panther

3.) Find the Setup.etl file and find a way to copy this file off of the system (I copied it to the D:\ partition and used Ghost to gather that partition and get the file off)

4.) Copy the setup.etl file from the corrupted system to another computer that has Windows 7. Put it on the root of C:\ for easiest access.

5.) Open a Command Prompt on the Windows 7 computer.

6.) Navigate to the root of C:\ (or wherever you saved the file)

7.) Type "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv"

8.) Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor of choice.

9.) Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say "Failed to process reg key or one of it's decendants" For me, the exact eror looked like this: "Failed to process reg key or one of its descendants: [\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET
Security\CurrentVersion\Plugins\01000200\Profiles\@My profile]" If you search for "reg key" or "failed to process" you should find the failure.

10.) Remove this software from your image, or find out how to get the registry key that is failing to work properly.

After this, you should be able to properly identify any problem keys and remove/workaround them on your image.

I see this post is about a year old at this point, but after searching the internet for weeks, I had high hopes for this solution. It seemed to go well, but the logfile.csv doesn't have the word "fail" in it anywhere...no "reg key", nothing. Did a sysprep
install with an unattend.xml answer file that seems to be working properly, but hangs at "Setup is starting services." forever.

At this point, I'm pretty convinced that the problem is a service or reg key error from one of the apps I installed during audit mode, but I can't tell which app/service is causing the problem.

Are there any other methods for viewing failed services or registry errors that would cause the sysprep install process to hang at "Setup is starting services."?

Willing to post logfile.csv from the "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv" command, or other log files such as setupact.log, etc. Nothing popped out at me.

For now I think I'll start making multiple .wim files with only certain software installed to try to discover which application is the culprit...just wish there was an easier way.

I had this same issue, reboot loop after SYSPREP with OOBE and Generalize...

It would error saying setup would continue after the restart, and then just the same thing again on the next boot/resume.

What fixed it for me was:

1. Hit F8 on boot

2. Take the option that disables forced driver signing

3. Reboot

Was fine for me after that and continued loading drivers etc and then got into windows 2008R2.

Can only assume I had some unsigned drivers that were ok when I had accepted them via the gui when I build the machine, but after sysprepping it it went back to the defaults of not accepting unsigned drivers so got stuck in the boot loop.....

I cannot convert the setup.etl to csv or txt. When I use tracerpt then a message says that the file is not legible. If I open with notepad I cannot read it because it is not a text document. Anyone can help me in open the setup.etl in order to see the
wrong registry key?. Please I wait your response and really thanks if someone can help me with this. Best Regards,

When you guys posted that the hotfix work for you, what exactly did you do? Furthermore, how can you apply the exe fix when you cannot even bypass the error message. Rebooting in safe mode or anything will just loop.

i was having the same issue and just wanted to let everyone know that after i got to the cmd promt i just on a whim typed explorer and the system came up. i was logged in as SYSTEM though. this may help with trouble shooting.

also after i got into system i was able to make the administrator account active by running "net user administrator /active:yes" in the same cmd promt window.

I've been suffering from this problem for the past 2 weeks and it's crept right up on the end of my image creation schedule deadlines. I now have one and a half weeks to create and test 5 seperate images. The one update they all have in common is the insallation
of AVG. And of course, this is the root source of all my problems. I tried Microsofts Hotfix for this issue, no success. I tried setting full control permissions on the registry keys for AVG, no success.

I then found a post somewhere, can't remember where, but someone had discovered not only the solution for this issue, but also the exact cause. For anyone experiencing this issue due to an AntiVirus application, Disable Auto-Protect. I have not yet tested
this, but apparently if you set up a Default Profile on one account, and then run sysprep from another, the Auto-Protect will remain enabled for all users except that from which you sysprepped. Due to my ever looming deadlines I've opted to just disable the
Auto-Protect and be done with it. I work in a school so all devices will end up being reimaged again in three months anyway so this isn't a big issue for me.

I hope this helps some people as I'd hate for an issue like this to plague others like it has me. I'm going to try posting this around on the other forums and if I find the source of this solution I'll link it here for everyone to see.

Thank you very much for this, out of all the possible solutions, this one worked for my situation perfectly. I have now managed to image 10 out of 13 systems booting to safe mode first, then into normal boot and it works every time. To me, this
is the ACTUAL SOLUTION

Update - Over a year later (November 11, 2014)- Daniel Albrecht solution of restarting in Safe mode has been the answer for all 30 systems I have done since. And about 15 virtual machines as well.

Jeff's solution fixed my problem. It lead me to find the issue had to do with AVG virus software causing a problem. Based on the info in the log from Jeff's solution I found the rest of the solution here:

Thanks, this helps me a lot! I have to ask though, why not open the *.etl file with Event Viewer rather than converting the file, then opening it with a text editor? It seems much easier (both for reading and effort) to just skip those steps and open the
ETL file with event viewer.

To save someone the headache I also found that my issues with th Specialize pass failing was caused by none other than the IE 10 update and my Unattend.xml file have a reference in it that was no longer readable by sysprep/IE. Bug apparently that Microsoft
know about. See the solution on the link below.

i was having the same issue and just wanted to let everyone know that after i got to the cmd promt i just on a whim typed explorer and the system came up. i was logged in as SYSTEM though. this may help with trouble shooting.

also after i got into system i was able to make the administrator account active by running "net user administrator /active:yes" in the same cmd promt window.

then you can switch users to login as the administrator and........

This... so much this. All I had to do is set the Administrator account active (with a password), reboot and then "BOOM" it finished booting. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I had the same problem. I had a string of ESET related keys and then it dawned on me. The self defense feature within ESET to prevent registry changes to its keys! I went back in, advanced setup>HIPS>uncheck "Enable Self-Defense". Rebooted
per ESET dialog box. Ran Sysprep again and all went through without error.

We run ESET anti virus and after doing a lot more research, lead me realise that the problem was down to not only the anti-virus but really down to HIPS (Host-based Intrusion Prevention System). This was stopping window from starting services during setup.
I disabled HIPS before syspreping, rebooted and found that this error did not appear and window setup ran smoothly and fast.

I now have the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. This solution will actually tell you exactly what registry key is causing your sysprep to fail, so then you don't have to slowly install
every program until you find the problem -- especially since this didn't work for me because my problem has been intermittent.

This issue is caused by certain registry keys that are either:

a) Larger than 8kb

b) Set with incorrect permissions

c) Corrupt in some way

For me, the problem was intermittent (same registry key would sometimes cause the issue and sometimes not - must be corrupt sometimes) so it was impossible to tell what program was doing it. Luckily, there is a log you can look at that will tell you
exactly what registry key is erroring out. Here are the steps for getting the log you need to see:

When you see the error message, do the following:

1.) Push Shift+F10 to get to a command prompt

2.) Navigate to C:\windows\Panther

3.) Find the Setup.etl file and find a way to copy this file off of the system (I copied it to the D:\ partition and used Ghost to gather that partition and get the file off)

4.) Copy the setup.etl file from the corrupted system to another computer that has Windows 7. Put it on the root of C:\ for easiest access.

5.) Open a Command Prompt on the Windows 7 computer.

6.) Navigate to the root of C:\ (or wherever you saved the file)

7.) Type "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv"

8.) Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor of choice.

9.) Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say "Failed to process reg key or one of it's decendants" For me, the exact eror looked like this: "Failed to process reg key or one of its descendants:
[\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET Security\CurrentVersion\Plugins\01000200\Profiles\@My profile]" If you search for "reg key" or "failed to process" you should find the failure.

10.) Remove this software from your image, or find out how to get the registry key that is failing to work properly.

After this, you should be able to properly identify any problem keys and remove/workaround them on your image.

I now have the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. This solution will actually tell you exactly what registry key is causing your sysprep to fail, so then you don't have to slowly install
every program until you find the problem -- especially since this didn't work for me because my problem has been intermittent.

This issue is caused by certain registry keys that are either:

a) Larger than 8kb

b) Set with incorrect permissions

c) Corrupt in some way

For me, the problem was intermittent (same registry key would sometimes cause the issue and sometimes not - must be corrupt sometimes) so it was impossible to tell what program was doing it. Luckily, there is a log you can look at that will tell you
exactly what registry key is erroring out. Here are the steps for getting the log you need to see:

When you see the error message, do the following:

1.) Push Shift+F10 to get to a command prompt

2.) Navigate to C:\windows\Panther

3.) Find the Setup.etl file and find a way to copy this file off of the system (I copied it to the D:\ partition and used Ghost to gather that partition and get the file off)

4.) Copy the setup.etl file from the corrupted system to another computer that has Windows 7. Put it on the root of C:\ for easiest access.

5.) Open a Command Prompt on the Windows 7 computer.

6.) Navigate to the root of C:\ (or wherever you saved the file)

7.) Type "tracerpt setup.etl -o logfile.csv"

8.) Close the command prompt and open up logfile.csv in your text editor of choice.

9.) Look through the log file (towards the end probably) for messages that say "Failed to process reg key or one of it's decendants" For me, the exact eror looked like this: "Failed to process reg key or one of its descendants:
[\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET Security\CurrentVersion\Plugins\01000200\Profiles\@My profile]" If you search for "reg key" or "failed to process" you should find the failure.

10.) Remove this software from your image, or find out how to get the registry key that is failing to work properly.

After this, you should be able to properly identify any problem keys and remove/workaround them on your image.

I know this is an old post, but maybe it will help someone in the future. It sounds like you have syspreped the same machine 3 times. After the 3rd time, you no longer can sysprep a machine. However, there is good news.

If you go back to before you did it 3 times, you can do it more times if you add into your unattend XML file under the generalize pass for the setting "Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>.

i fount that key with your solution (it was eset for me too) and first fix permissions but dos not work so i delete that key and windows start successfully and after that i remove eset with eset remover

Jeff, I know this post is over 6 yrs old.....however, have you, or anyone else, ran into the issue where Shift+F10 doesn't work? After clicking in the console window and pressing Shift+F10 the Command Prompt never appears.

I used the steps provided by Daniel Albrecht (below in this thread) to get past the dreaded "windows could not finish configuring the system....." and everything seems to be fine. However, I would like to find the root cause to ensure
it doesn't happen with future deployments from template.